Zipper Club

ABOUT THE BAND

Zipper Club is comprised of Mason James of Cerebral Ballzy and Lissy Trulie of Lissy Trulie. “I was never pigeonholed into liking one specific genre,” says Mason, the no-nonsense guitarist and founding member behind the addictive assault of a new-wave inspired band alongside multi-instrumentalist, co-writer, and vocalist Lissy Trulie. “If it sounds good I don’t care if it’s from the 1920’s or the 2016’s. As a musician, you take little tidbits of cool sounds you hear and combine them into something completely unique. Music needs to reflect on itself.” Such a lack of musical inhibition goes a long way in explaining how Mason, a raucous punk-rock kid whose life goals were once to “thrash around onstage and get wildly drunk” with his previous band, Cerebral Ballzy, and Trulie, a successful solo artist in her own right with her eponymous indie-rock band, threw caution to the wind and concocted pop music unlike any they’ve made before. “I really respect and love well-written hooks. That’s always something that gets me excited,” Trulie says. “It’s a huge change and not a logical one,” Mason says with a laugh of Zipper Club’s pop missiles, which he began penning two years ago. “It’s a super-180 for me. But that’s what I think is really cool about it. It made me realize that the music is the only thing that matters.” Zipper Club is at its core a union of like-minded musicians who share a musical story and, through their respective former bands, have each navigated the rocky waters of the music industry. The result is a blissful head rush of a band now coming to the fore armed with buzzing guitars, spacey synths and magnetic melodies via its debut single, “Going The Distance.” “It’s music that’s not trying to be something it’s not,” Trulie says of the band’s addictive, brain-lodging sound on its forthcoming debut album, produced by James Iha (Smashing Pumpkins, A Perfect Circle). Adds Mason: “It’s synth-bred, weird- sounding music that’s different but still melodic and palatable.”“Going The Distance” is in many ways a perfect encapsulation of the no-holds- barred attitude of Zipper Club. “It was very appropriate for myself. Reflective of a road to nowhere I was on at the time and I wrote it as a coping mechanism,” he says of a song he describes as “My attitude at the time was “I’m going to do whatever I want. I’m going to wake up at 2 and no one can stop me.” He laughs. “It’s actually kind of the most punk song on the album.”Mason began writing the songs that formed the backbone of Zipper Clubprincipally out of creative necessity. After touring for several menacing years — “I was falling apart at the time due to too much time on the road” — the remedy was to hole up in his apartment. He began writing songs inspired by the diverse musical tastes of his childhood. He decided he was going to do something new and hook-heavy pop gems quickly sprang to the surface. When out in Los Angeles, in 2014, Mason linked up with Iha with whom he’d previously worked. “He was the only producer I had on my list,” he says of the producer whom the band characterizes as a “subtle mad scientist.” In short order Mason laid down some early songs, brought accomplice Lissy into the fold, and solidified what became Zipper Club. For Lissy, Zipper Club marks an invigorating new creative path: no longer carrying the sole weight of a project, she’s now found a creative partner to share in the collective musical journey. “I was looking for a breath of fresh air and a new creative outlet,” she says. “And I found it.”

The connection was an undeniable one: both musicians are at their core songwriters and storytellers albeit ones who happen to recognize an infectious hook when they hear it. They also share similar musical sensibilities: Mason was raised on a steady diet of Motown while Lissy similarly gravitated towards vintage R&B and soul due in large part to her record-collecting father. “It was instantaneous,” Mason says of he and Trulie bonding over lunch in New York. “I was like ‘This is going to be cool. She’s rad!’” Trulie, for her part, says she was already sold on the project before ever meeting Mason. “My ears perked up as soon as I heard the demos,” she recalls thinking, “Yeah, I definitely want to throw down on this!”

Zipper Club soon hunkered down with Iha for additional writing and recording sessions at Eye Sky Studios in North Hollywood. Collaborating with Lissy created “this spark” that Mason could never have foreseen. Additionally, as the pair has subsequently co- written what became the rest of Zipper Club’s debut LP, their musical cohesion has only grown stronger. Trulie says writing with her new bandmate has shown her the musical band with her and Mason is real and makes total sense for the both of them. “It feels like it’s opening up more and more every day,” she says. Adds Mason: “There’s something really cool about a healthy musical partnership,” he says. “It’s been super constructive. You’re building a car and the machine starts to work. We are in cruise control and it feels really good.”

Mason points to the pummeling, echo-laden “Regrets” — on which Trulie sings,
“Talking to you makes me second guess/Living my life with no regrets” — as one of the earliest and most powerful collaborations between he and his new musical counterpart. “A light bulb went off when Lissy sang over it,” the guitarist says when recalling the experience. This was the moment when they realized, “This works!” – and that feeling is what it’s all about.” “At the end of the day,” Trulie says, “It’s about making good music.”

Zipper Club aren’t slowing down: the band is currently putting the final touches on their debut album and prepping for what promises to be a busy summer. Their multi-sensory live show promises to be every bit as much an endorphin-releasing adrenaline shot as their scorching new songs. “It’s all about trying to come out there with a bang.” Trulie couldn’t agree more: “It’s full-speed ahead.”